Nanocarbon Materials-Based Solar Cells

In this presentation, we introduce our recent research progress on organic and perovskite solar cells using functionalized nanocarbon materials. We applied wet-processed scalable single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) films to transparent and back electrodes in organic solar cells for large area solar cells. Gas-phase growth SWCNT was dispersed with sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate surfactant in an organic solvent and solution-coated on a treated glass substrate to make a SWCNT film as a transparent electrode. We achieved the first high efficiency e-DIPS/wet-processed SWCNT film electrode in organic solar cells with a best-efficiency of 5.93% through the optimized HNO3 doping methodology. We also report enhanced hole-transporting ability of widely utilized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) achieved by applying cationic nitrogen-doped graphene (CNG) as a p-type modifier for efficient organic solar cells. The power conversion efficiency of the CNG-coated PEDOT:PSS-applied OSC reaches 2.76% using poly(3-hexylthiophene), which is an increase of 40% compared to that of the pristine PEDOT:PSS-applied OSC (1.96%). This technology improved the efficiency of organic solar cells using a low-bandgap polymer from 6.54% to 7.79%. The significantly enhanced performance is contributed by the increased hole-transporting ability, and the improved interfacial morphology of PEDOT:PSS.